Kurt Angle Compares Current AEW Star to AJ Styles

Thanks to their many great matches in TNA/Impact Wrestling, Kurt Angle has nothing but positive things to say when it comes to AJ Styles. In a new interview with Chris Jericho on the Talk Is Jericho podcast, the Olympic gold medalist reflected on his classic bouts with Styles, then went ahead and compared current AEW star Kenny Omega to "The Phenomenal One."

"That was my inspiration coming into the (TNA)," Angle said (h/t SEScoops). "I had my eyes set on AJ. He was one of the greatest overall performers I've ever seen. The stuff he can do in the ring. He was great at technical stuff. He was great at high-flying. He had the whole ball of wax. The great thing about AJ was you didn't have to do any work. I mean, when you wrestled him it was like a night off. He did all the bumping. He did all the selling. He did all the flying around. All you did was catch him. And I could go an hour and a half with AJ and not even break a sweat. But he'd be exhausted."

One the subject of Omega, Angle said, "Another wrestler that reminds me of AJ is Kenny Omega. Very much so. These guys are a step above everybody. For whatever reason. I don't know what it is, but they have the it factor. These guys put on tremendous matches. I'm not buying all the six and seven-star matches by Dave Meltzer, but the only person that gets like six, seven, eight, nine stars is Kenny Omega, and he deserves it. It's really incredible how good he really is."

Ironically, Styles and Omega are linked by the fact that "The Cleaner" kicked Styles out of Bullet Club back in 2016 (this was when Styles was on his way to WWE), then took over as the leader of the group. He would eventually be a part of The Elite faction that splintered off from Bullet Club and found All Elite Wrestling as a promotion.

Omega has praised Angle in the past, calling him one of the best to ever step inside the squared circle. 

"I felt like I just missed out on maybe wrestling Kurt Angle, and that would have been a dream match for me," Omega told Adam's Apple back in September (h/t Wrestling Inc.). "He's a guy that I consider probably one of the best of all time. Especially for what I try to do in the ring and I try to bring in athletics and real sports. He was a jack of all trades and there won't be anyone like him ever again, I don't think."